Gary Lineker: 'There aren't any skeletons in my closet' The pundit on his fears for his old team mate Gazza, why his party-loving son George doesn't worry him - and those wild rumours about his private life

‘We’ve seen other great players – George Best is the obvious example – who went off the rails and didn’t live their lives as long and as well as you might have hoped. I fear Gazza might be the same,’ he says, shaking his head in genuine sorrow.

When we meet, Gascoigne, 45, is in a drying-out clinic in Arizona where he suffered a seizure after trying to give up the booze for the umpteenth time.

TV presenter and former footballer Gary Lineker says there are no skeletons in his closet

For a while it was touch and go but, thankfully, he rallied. Gary is one of several friends of the England football legend who put their hands in their pockets to help fund his £100,000 treatment.

‘Hopefully, this time he’s reached that so-called rock bottom and it will force him to try,’ says Gary. ‘But he needs a reason to want to get better. I’ve always worried that for Gazza, without his football, what would that reason be?

'Hopefully he can find some sort of goal. But he had problems during his career as well. He has an addictive personality and he’s got real issues. He always has had.’

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The only thing he’s ever been addicted to is Twitter. Indeed, he worried so much about it ‘taking over’ his life at the beginning of the year he went cold turkey.

But, within eight days, he was back on the tweet. ‘I was spending too much time on it,’ he says. ‘It’s quite addictive and that’s what you’ve got to be careful of. I’ve gone back on it but not so frequently. I’ll control Twitter, not let Twitter control me,’ he says.

Which I’m sure he will. At 52, Gary is a bloke who continues to push himself hard. He says he’s a perfectionist but doesn’t really need to – you can see it in his immaculate grey suit and skin that screams I-cleanse-twice-daily-moisturise-and-drink-lots-of-water.

Gary is one of several friends of the England football legend who put their hands in their pockets to help fund his £100,000 treatment

There’s a glass of it in front of him in his agent’s office. No, I can’t imagine him losing it like Gazza.

For Gary has always seemed to have one eye ahead of the game. He knew he wanted a career in broadcasting when the rest of us were still cheering his goals for England and, for all his Mr Nice Guy act – and he is genuinely nice – you can’t help feeling Gary gets what Gary wants.

He met his drop-dead-gorgeous second wife, model Danielle Bux, on a blind date in 2007. They were married in 2009, never mind she was 19 years younger than him, and Danielle has since been pursuing a career as an actress.

‘We’ve grown stronger as time’s gone by,’ he says. ‘I admire her a lot. It would be so easy for her to sit back and have a good time. She wants to work. She’s worked all her life and she’s such a trier. Being with me has given her the opportunity to do it because acting is unbelievably tough. Although she hates being known as Gary Lineker’s wife.’

Gary is currently renegotiating a £3 million deal with the BBC to present, among other things, Match Of The Day.

Then there are his lucrative after-dinner speaking engagements and the zillions he’s been paid over the years by Walkers crisps. Which is why we’re here.

The ‘spud flogger extraordinaire’ (his Twitter moniker) has travelled the country with his dad Barry, a retired market trader, sampling the home-grown ingredients that go into Walkers crisps for a one-off documentary.

Gary has been flogging spuds since 1995 now, making this one of the longest-running campaigns ever. His favourite, he says, was the 1996 advert with his old mate Gazza. ‘I’m not just saying that because of what’s happening. It’s still my favourite,’ he says.

‘He tries to pinch my crisps so I squeeze his hand and he starts to cry. They had this contraption that went under his eyes and it was spurting out tears. It was so funny. The pair of us couldn’t stop laughing for three or four hours.’ He shrugs in an if-only-we-could-turn-the-clock-back sort of way.

‘In his prime Gazza was very bright and witty, but I think that’s been dulled by what he’s been going through. Along with a few others I’m trying to do something, but ultimately it’s got to come from him.’

He folds his arms as he says this. Much like a father telling a teenage son to sort himself out, which he’s had to do too, particularly with George, 21, the hard-partying eldest of his four sons.

He met his drop-dead-gorgeous second wife, model Danielle Bux, on a blind date in 2007

Now George, who survived leukaemia at the age of two, is the spit of his dad right down to those sticky-out ears and reputation as a ladies’ man (more of which later).

‘There’s always been an interest in George because of what happened when he was tiny,’ says Gary. ‘I don’t know, George sometimes brings it on himself. But he’s just doing what teenagers or kids in their early 20s do – they go out and have a good time.’

George, though, seems to really relish the having-a-good-time bit. Does he feel a pressure being his famous father’s son? ‘Quite possibly, but I don’t know,’ Gary says.

‘I think it was difficult for them on the football pitch because the expectations were high. George is not really much of a sportsman. The middle two are decent. People expect them to be brilliant because their dad did quite well, which is probably harder than they let on.’

Gary first caught the public's imagination in 1985 when he became the First Division's top scorer

George was 14, Harry 12, Tobias ten, and Angus eight when Gary and their mum Michelle split after 20 years of marriage.

Michelle was granted a quickie divorce and changed her name back to Cockayne before you could say salt’n’Lineker, claiming he’d caused her ‘stress and anxiety’. Gary says now, ‘Basically we grew apart. There was nothing more and nothing less to it.’

There were, though, the inevitable whispers that Gary was playing away from home and his reputation as a ladies’ man stuck despite the fact he’s been blissfully married for three years.

‘People used to tell me, “I know this rumour about you and I know it’s definitely true.” I’d say, “I assure you it’s not.” I don’t know how rumours start or where they start. I’ve been in the public eye now for a long time. If I’d had some of these skeletons in my closet they would have come out – and I know that I haven’t got them.’

Gary first caught the public’s imagination in 1985 when he became the First Division’s top scorer after transferring to league champions Everton from Leicester City. He went on to become the highest scoring player at the 1986 World Cup before injury ended his career in 1994.

‘When you’re a footballer you’re treated like a child. You will have breakfast at this time. You will eat this or that. You will get on the bus at 10am. You will have people shouting at you. You will go to bed the night before a game at a reasonable hour.

'Whereas in TV we can have a few drinks the night before. We can have dinner. I don’t have people shouting at me. I’m more in control. I feel more of a grown-up. But I’m lucky because I found something else to do, whereas Gazza hasn’t.

‘But everyone loves him. People want him to get better. If only he can garner the affection of the public and use that to get better. He has an unbelievable amount of support from the people of this country.

'I genuinely hope he can pull himself out of it because he’s given a lot and I was part of that history – some of the best moments in English footballing history. I have a lot of love for him. But, as I said, we’re different personalities.’

They certainly are.

You can watch the video for the new Walkers Crisps advert at www.youtube.com/walkerscrisps.